Trinity

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and their relations.

Passages that substantially address this topic, in date order.

Didache 7.1Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · Baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in running water.
Didache 7.3Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · If there is not enough water, pour water on the head three times.
1 Clement 46.6Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · One God, one Christ, one Spirit, one calling.
1 Clement 58.2Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · An oath by God, Christ, and the Spirit: the humble and obedient will be saved.
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 5.6.5 (59.5)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · God made the pre-existent Holy Spirit dwell in chosen flesh, which served the Spirit purely.
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 9.1.1 (78.1)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · The Spirit who spoke as the church is the Son of God.
To the Magnesians 13.1Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Stand firm in the teaching of the Lord and the apostles, with the bishop, presbyters, and deacons.
First Apology 13Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · Christians worship the Creator with prayer and thanksgiving, and honor Christ, crucified under Pontius Pilate, in the second place and the prophetic Spirit in the third.
First Apology 6Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · Christians are “atheists” only toward false gods; they worship the true God, his Son, and the prophetic Spirit.
First Apology 60Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · Plato's “world soul set crosswise” and his threefold order came from Moses' bronze serpent and Genesis; even the unlettered among Christians know these things.
First Apology 61Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · Justin describes baptism: instruction, prayer and fasting, then washing in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, called “illumination.”
First Apology 63Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · The one who spoke to Moses from the bush was the Son, the Word, who is also God; the Jews wrongly think it was the Father.
Second Apology 13Justin Martyr · ca. 150–160 · Justin strives to be a Christian; whatever truth any philosopher spoke belongs to Christians, since the philosophers had only seeds of the Word, while Christians have the Word himself.
Second Apology 5Justin Martyr · ca. 150–160 · God the Father has no proper name; the Son is called Christ and Jesus, and in his name Christians cast out demons.
Dialogue with Trypho 114.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · The Jewish teachers take God's “fingers” literally and think the Father himself appeared to the patriarchs.
Dialogue with Trypho 126.5Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · The one who appeared to the patriarchs serves the Father's will.
Dialogue with Trypho 127.1Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · The unbegotten God does not literally come down or go up.
Dialogue with Trypho 127.2Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · The Father is everywhere present by power, uncontained by any place.
Dialogue with Trypho 127.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Not even the glory of the one sent could be endured; how much less the Father?
Dialogue with Trypho 127.4Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · No one saw the Father; the patriarchs saw his Son.
Dialogue with Trypho 127.5Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Otherwise the Father would not have been in heaven during these events.
Dialogue with Trypho 128.2Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Some teach that the power that appeared is only a name for the Father's activity.
Dialogue with Trypho 128.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · They compare the Son to sunlight, drawn back when the Father wills.
Dialogue with Trypho 128.4Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · The Son is distinct in number from the Father, begotten without division, as fire from fire.
Dialogue with Trypho 129.1Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Gen 19:24 indicates two in number: the Lord on earth and the Father in heaven, the cause of his being.
Dialogue with Trypho 129.2Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Gen 3:22 indicates plurality.
Dialogue with Trypho 129.4Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · The begotten is distinct in number from the one who begets.
Dialogue with Trypho 50.1Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Trypho asks Justin to prove there is “another God” besides the Creator.
Dialogue with Trypho 55.1Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Trypho asks for proof of “another God,” not merely the use of “gods” for idols.
Dialogue with Trypho 56.1Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Moses shows that the God who appeared to Abraham at Mamre was sent by another, the unseen Father.
Dialogue with Trypho 56.11Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · The God who appeared to the patriarchs is distinct from the Father in number, but not in will.
Dialogue with Trypho 56.12Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Gen 19:23–25: “the Lord rained … from the Lord.”
Dialogue with Trypho 56.14Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · David too calls another “Lord” and “God” besides the Father.
Dialogue with Trypho 56.15Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Justin will prove that the Lord of Gen 19:24 is the one who appeared to Abraham.
Dialogue with Trypho 56.22Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · The one of the three who is God and Lord remained with Abraham while the two angels went to Sodom.
Dialogue with Trypho 56.23Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · The Lord on earth brought judgment on Sodom “from the Lord” in heaven.
Dialogue with Trypho 56.4Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Justin will prove there is another God and Lord, under the Creator, called Angel because he announces the Father's will.
Dialogue with Trypho 60.2Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Even so, the one who spoke was not the Father, who does not leave heaven to appear in a corner of the earth.
Dialogue with Trypho 60.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Trypho concedes that the God of the bush is the one who appeared to Abraham and Jacob.
Dialogue with Trypho 60.5Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · In each case the “angel” is also Lord and God, serving the Father.
Dialogue with Trypho 61.1Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Before all creation God begot from himself a rational Power, called Glory, Son, Wisdom, Angel, God, Lord, Word, and Captain.
Dialogue with Trypho 61.2Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · As a word is spoken without diminishing the mind, and fire kindles fire without loss, so the Son is begotten without division of the Father.
Dialogue with Trypho 62.1Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · “Let us make man” (Gen 1:26–28) shows God speaking to another.
Dialogue with Trypho 62.2Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Justin rejects the explanations that God spoke to himself or to the elements.
Dialogue with Trypho 62.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Gen 3:22, “one of us,” indicates at least two; not angels, as some teach.
Dialogue with Trypho 62.4Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · The Offspring begotten before creation is the one the Father addresses.
Dialogue with Trypho 65.1Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Trypho cites Isa 42:8: God gives his glory to no other.
Dialogue with Trypho 68.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Justin asks whether anyone besides the Creator and Christ is called God and worshipped in Scripture.
Martyrdom of Polycarp 14.3Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · Polycarp ended his prayer with praise to God through Christ, the eternal High Priest.
Oration to the Greeks 5Tatian · ca. 165–172 · Tatian's doctrine of the Word: begotten from the Father's power without diminishing him, like a torch lit from a torch, and the maker of the world; matter itself was created, not eternal.
To Autolycus 2.10Theophilus of Antioch · ca. 180–185 · God made all things from nothing through his Word, whom he had within himself and “uttered” with his Wisdom before creation; this Word spoke through the prophets, and Genesis begins with “In the beginning.”
To Autolycus 2.15Theophilus of Antioch · ca. 180–185 · The sun and moon are types of God and humanity; the three days before the lights are types of the “Triad” of God, his Word, and his Wisdom; the stars represent the prophets, the righteous, and the apostate.
To Autolycus 2.18Theophilus of Antioch · ca. 180–185 · Humanity alone was made by God's own hands, in his image; God's “Let us make” was spoken to his Word and his Wisdom; the first humans and animals ate only plants.
To Autolycus 2.22Theophilus of Antioch · ca. 180–185 · It was the Word, God's Son, who walked in the garden: always within God's heart, “uttered” before creation as the firstborn of all creation, and sent by the Father to appear in a place.
A Plea for the Christians 10Athenagoras · ca. 176–180 · Christians worship one God, together with his Son, the eternal Word, and the Holy Spirit, distinct in order yet one in power; there are also angels who serve God.
A Plea for the Christians 12Athenagoras · ca. 176–180 · Christians live pure lives because they expect God's judgment and know the Father, Son, and Spirit; those who deny judgment are called pious, but Christians are not.
A Plea for the Christians 24Athenagoras · ca. 176–180 · As there are Father, Son, and Spirit, so there are angels; some angels fell, among them the ruler of matter and those who lusted after women and fathered the giants.
A Plea for the Christians 6Athenagoras · ca. 176–180 · Pythagoreans, Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics all in effect teach one God; the Christian God is the one who made all things by his Word and holds them together by his Spirit.
The Instructor 1.6.42Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · The church is the one virgin mother who nurses her children with the Word; Christ bore her in the travail of his flesh and swaddled her in his blood, and is everything to his little ones.
The Instructor 1.8.62Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Against those who say the God who threatens and punishes is not good, Clement answers that he became man out of love and hates nothing that he has made.
The Instructor 1.8.71Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Christ's prayer in John 17 shows the one God to be both good and righteous: the Father is called good and the Son, his Word in the Father, just.
The Instructor 1.9.88Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Like a mirror or a physician, God's reproof only reveals sin; God is good in himself and just for our sake, and his justice came to us in the law and in the incarnate Word.
The Instructor 3.12.101Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · The work ends with a prayer to the Word, Instructor and Teacher, and a hymn to Christ the Savior as shepherd, fisher of men, and nourishing milk of his children, praised with the Father and the Holy Spirit.
Prophetic Extracts 13.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · The two or three witnesses are the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who witness and help us keep the commandments.
Prophetic Extracts 21.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · No thought of God is worthy of him, but we may think of him as unapproachable light, all-good, compassionate, impassible, and all-knowing.
Prophetic Extracts 26.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · When God is called a consuming fire,
Prophetic Extracts 26.2Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · it signifies his power, not evil: as fire is the strongest element, God is almighty over all.
Prophetic Extracts 26.3Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Fire has two powers, life-giving like the sun and destructive like earthly fire.
Prophetic Extracts 26.4Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · God as consuming fire means a strong, irresistible power that can destroy.
Prophetic Extracts 29.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Knowledge of Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and the soul is necessary for salvation.
Excerpts from Theodotus 24.2Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Clement answers that the Spirit at work in the church is the same Spirit who worked in the old covenant.
Excerpts from Theodotus 76.3Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Christ commands the apostles to preach and to baptize believers in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
Excerpts from Theodotus 8.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Clement's view: the Word is God in God, in the Father's bosom, undivided, one God.
Excerpts from Theodotus 80.3Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Sealed in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the baptized is beyond all hostile powers and bears the heavenly image.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 34.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · The humble body hides from death and the devil the treasure within, guarded by the Father, the blood of the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 37.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · Contemplate the mysteries of love and you will see the Father's bosom, revealed by the only-begotten God; God is love and became visible to us out of love.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 37.2Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · In God, the ineffable is Father, and his compassion toward us is motherly: in loving, the Father became like a mother.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 42.20Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · Doxology to the Father through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 6.4Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · Called “good,” Jesus turns the questioner to God, the only Good, who gives eternal life through the Son.
Miscellanies 2.2.5Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The Christian philosophy is perfect: Wisdom speaks of knowledge of nature and of hidden things; it leads to God, who is far in essence but near in power, seeing all things.
Miscellanies 2.2.6Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Moses, knowing God cannot be known by human wisdom, entered the darkness, that is, the formless thoughts about God, who is beyond place and time and cannot be contained.
Miscellanies 2.4.14Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Only faith reaches the first principle of all things, which the Greek philosophers never knew; knowledge is demonstrative, but faith is a grace that rises to the simple, immaterial God.
Miscellanies 3.10.68Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · “Where two or three are gathered” may mean husband, wife, and child, since God joins them; the heretics set the Creator with the many and the Savior with the one elect, but the same God is with the married and the celibate.
Miscellanies 4.25.156Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · God the Father is beyond demonstration, but the Son is wisdom, knowledge, and truth, open to demonstration; all the Spirit's powers are united in him, not as parts but as one, a circle of all powers.
Miscellanies 5.1.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Book 5 opens on faith: faith and knowledge cannot be separated, as the Father cannot be without the Son; we believe the Son to know the Father; Christians believe and know what most disbelieve and do not know.
Miscellanies 5.14.102Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Democritus, Pindar, and Plato all hint at one supreme God, the Father and Maker, and Plato even seems to speak of the Father and the Son.
Miscellanies 5.14.103Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Clement reads Plato's “king of all” with a second and a third as a hint of the Trinity, and Plato's tale of Er, whom he identifies with Zoroaster, as a hint of the resurrection or the soul's ascent; Empedocles speaks of a final change of all things into fire.
Miscellanies 5.14.116Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Clement finds hints of the Father and the Son in lines of Homer, in Orpheus, and in Xenocrates' highest and lowest Zeus.
Miscellanies 5.6.38Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The high priest's headdress signifies that God is head of Christ; the breastpiece's parts signify work and the Word; its twelve stones the zodiac or the righteous of both covenants; the Name on the gold plate is the Son, image of the invisible God, beginning of all things.
Miscellanies 6.7.58Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The first teacher of all, men and angels alike, is the first-begotten Son, God's Wisdom and counselor, who has taught in many ways from the beginning; so Christ says to call no one on earth teacher.
Miscellanies 6.9.78Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · God answers the knower before he speaks; knowledge, acquired and made firm by practice and love, grasps God, his Son, and all the Lord taught, from creation to the end.
Octavius 18.7Minucius Felix · ca. 197–250 · As nature has single rulers, so the one eternal God rules all by his word.
On Baptism 6Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Baptism in water prepares for the Holy Spirit, as John prepared Christ's way; faith is sealed in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and the church, the body of the three, is confessed with them.
On Prayer 2Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · In calling God “Father” we honor him, fulfill Christ's command, and acknowledge the Son and the church, our mother, while rebuking those who do not know the Father.
On Prayer 25Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Though no hours of prayer are commanded, it is good to pray at the third, sixth, and ninth hours, as the apostles did, besides morning and evening prayer and prayer before meals and bathing.
Prescription against Heretics 13Tertullian · ca. 203 · Tertullian states the rule of faith: one Creator God, his Word and Son born of the virgin Mary, crucified, risen, ascended, sending the Spirit, and coming to judge, with the resurrection of the flesh.
Prescription against Heretics 28Tertullian · ca. 203 · If the churches had erred, their errors would differ; the agreement of so many churches in one faith shows it is tradition, not error.
Against Marcion 1.15Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Marcion's god has no visible world of his own; and if he made one, the place and matter it required would themselves be gods, so that Marcion's system actually implies nine gods, not two.
Against Marcion 1.3Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Tertullian argues that God by definition is the supreme great being, which can have no equal, so there can only be one God: “God, if he is not one, is not.”
Against Marcion 1.4Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · The analogy of many kings, each supreme in his own realm, fails: nothing can be compared with God, and even among kings supremacy finally belongs to only one.
Against Marcion 1.5Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · If two gods are admitted, there is no reason not to admit many; two equal gods would be pointless and would make worship itself impossible to get right.
Against Marcion 1.6Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Marcion's two gods are in fact unequal (a harsh judge and a merely good god), but if both are truly God, neither can be less than the other, so inequality between them is impossible too.
Against Marcion 1.7Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · That Scripture calls others “gods” proves nothing: supreme greatness belongs to God's eternal substance, not to the name, and so two gods can be neither equal nor unequal.
Against Marcion 2.27Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · God's human-like actions in the Old Testament belong to the Son, the Word who from the beginning dealt with patriarchs and prophets and was preparing to become man; the invisible Father is never seen, and God's humility is the means of human salvation.
Against Praxeas 1Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · Praxeas brought to Rome the heresy that the Father himself was born and suffered, and also turned the bishop of Rome against the New Prophecy; Tertullian announces his refutation.
Against Praxeas 10Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · No one can be his own father or son; the Monarchians' claim that God made himself his own Son abolishes both Father and Son, and God's omnipotence proves nothing unless Scripture shows he did it.
Against Praxeas 11Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · Praxeas must show from Scripture that God is his own Son; instead Scripture everywhere distinguishes the one who speaks, the one spoken to, and the one spoken of, showing the three persons.
Against Praxeas 12Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · God's plural “Let us make man” and “one of us” show that the Word and the Spirit were with him; in creation one person commands and another makes, one substance in three persons, distinct but not divided.
Against Praxeas 13Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · Scripture calls both Father and Son “God” and “Lord,” yet Christians do not speak of two gods: the one name was used in the Old Testament so that Christ might be recognized as God, and it is now kept as one, as sun and ray are one substance.
Against Praxeas 14Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · God said no one could see his face and live, yet patriarchs and prophets saw God and lived: the invisible one is the Father, while the Son was seen, in visions and figures, before his incarnation.
Against Praxeas 15Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · The New Testament too distinguishes the invisible Father, whom no one has seen, from the visible Son, whom the apostles saw and touched; the Son was always the one seen and always acted by the Father's will.
Against Praxeas 16Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · From the beginning it was the Son, not the Father, who acted in history, judged, appeared to Adam, Abraham, Moses, and in the furnace, and took on human feelings; the invisible Father did none of these things.
Against Praxeas 17Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · The divine names, God Almighty, Most High, Lord of hosts, King of Israel, He Who Is, belong to the Son too, since he came in the Father's name and received all things from him.
Against Praxeas 18Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · When Scripture says there is only one God, it excludes idols and false gods, not the Son, who is included in the Father as the ray in the sun.
Against Praxeas 19Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · God “alone” stretched out the heavens in contrast to angels and other powers, not to his Wisdom and Word, the Son, who made all things with him; Father and Son are two by arrangement, not separation, and remain one God.
Against Praxeas 2Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · Against Praxeas, Tertullian sets out the rule of faith: one God under an “economy,” Father, Son, and Spirit, three in degree, form, and aspect but one in substance, condition, and power.
Against Praxeas 20Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · Monarchians rely on three sayings of Jesus against the whole of Scripture; but the few must be read in the light of the many and the earlier.
Against Praxeas 21Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · John's Gospel from its first verse distinguishes the Word from God the Father; throughout, Jesus speaks of the Father as another who sent him, loves him, gives him judgment and life, and draws believers to him.
Against Praxeas 22Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · Throughout John 7–10 Jesus speaks of the Father who sent him as another witness; “I and the Father are one” uses the neuter “one thing,” not “one person,” and so shows two united, not one.
Against Praxeas 23Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · At Lazarus' tomb and in the voice from heaven, Son and Father speak to each other, the Son on earth and the Father in heaven; they are two persons, not one God changing roles, and it was the Son, not the Father, who was betrayed and glorified.
Against Praxeas 24Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · When Jesus tells Philip “he who has seen me has seen the Father,” he means that the invisible Father is known through the Son's works and words, not that he himself is the Father; he says “I am in the Father,” not “I am the Father.”
Against Praxeas 25Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · In John's Gospel Christ promises “another” Paraclete, calls the Father the vinedresser, and after the resurrection speaks of ascending “to my Father and your Father”; the Gospel itself says it was written so that we might believe that Jesus is the Son.
Against Praxeas 26Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · The other Gospels confirm that Christ is the Son: the angel announces the Spirit and power of the Most High coming upon Mary, and Jesus throughout speaks of the Father as another, ending with baptism into three names, by triple immersion.
Against Praxeas 27Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · Praxeas' followers split Jesus (the flesh, the Son) from Christ (the Spirit, the Father); Tertullian answers that the Word did not change into flesh but put it on, so that Jesus is one person with two substances, God and man, unconfused, each acting in its own way.
Against Praxeas 28Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · “Christ” means “anointed,” a title, not a proper name; Scripture shows that the Father anointed the Son, and if Christ were the Father there would have to be another God above him.
Against Praxeas 29Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · Christ died in his human, not his divine, substance; the Monarchians blaspheme by making the Father suffer and be accursed, and even their claim that the Father “suffered with” the Son makes him passible.
Against Praxeas 3Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · Simple believers fear that the Trinity divides God's “monarchy,” but a monarchy is not destroyed by being administered through a son or through officers; it is overthrown only when a rival god is set against the Creator.
Against Praxeas 30Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · Christ's cry “My God, why have you forsaken me?” shows that the Son, not the Father, suffered and died; the Son rose, ascended, sits at the Father's right hand, and poured out the Holy Spirit, the third person.
Against Praxeas 31Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · To believe in one God without the Son and the Spirit is the Jewish faith; the gospel reveals one God in three persons, and those who confuse Father and Son deny both, like the antichrists John condemns.
Against Praxeas 4Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · Because the Son comes from the Father's substance and will hand the kingdom back to the Father, as Paul says, the Trinity preserves the monarchy; the same passage shows that Father and Son are two.
Against Praxeas 5Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · Before creation God was never alone, for he had within himself his Reason, which is also his Word; as reason and inner speech in the human mind, the Word was a second with God.
Against Praxeas 6Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · Scripture calls the Word “Wisdom,” begotten before creation and present with God in making the world; when God willed to create, he first put forth the Word, through whom all things were made.
Against Praxeas 7Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · The Word, conceived in God's mind as Wisdom, was fully born when God spoke at creation; he is not an empty sound but a real substance and person, the Son, second to the Father.
Against Praxeas 8Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · The Son was “put forth” from the Father, not separated as in Valentinus' system, but as a shoot from a root, a river from a spring, a ray from the sun; the Spirit is third, and the Trinity preserves the monarchy.
Against Praxeas 9Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · Father, Son, and Spirit are distinct but not divided: the Son is “another” by distinction, not separation; Christ himself calls the Paraclete “another Advocate.”
Refutation of All Heresies 10.26.1Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Some Montanists follow Noetus, saying the Father of all is himself the Son, visible and invisible, mortal and immortal.
Refutation of All Heresies 10.27.1Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Summary of Noetus: the one Father and God of all made everything and was invisible or visible as he willed.
Refutation of All Heresies 10.27.2Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · For Noetus the one God is invisible or visible, unbegotten or born, impassible or suffering, and is called Son at different times.
Refutation of All Heresies 10.27.3Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Summary of Callistus: one God, Father and Son by name, one Spirit in substance; God is not other than the Word.
Refutation of All Heresies 10.27.4Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Callistus called the Word one God who became flesh, the visible flesh being the Son and the indwelling God the Father.
Refutation of All Heresies 10.33.1Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The one God first begot the Word, not a spoken word but the inner reason of all things, from his own being.
Refutation of All Heresies 10.33.2Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The Word, the Father's firstborn, carried the Father's will and ideas and made the world at his command.
Refutation of All Heresies 10.33.8Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The Word alone is from God himself and so is God; the world, made from nothing, is not God, and God made nothing evil.
Refutation of All Heresies 8.19.3Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Some Montanists side with the Noetians, saying the Father himself is the Son who was born and died.
Refutation of All Heresies 9.10.10Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The Noetians say one God is invisible and visible, unbegotten and begotten, immortal and mortal, just as Heraclitus paired opposites.
Refutation of All Heresies 9.10.11Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Noetus taught that the Father, by being born, became his own Son, so that Father and Son are one person under two names at different times.
Refutation of All Heresies 9.10.12Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Cleomenes and his followers say that the one crucified, buried, and raised is himself the God and Father of all.
Refutation of All Heresies 9.11.3Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Callistus had Zephyrinus make ambiguous public statements; when Hippolytus resisted, Callistus called his party “worshippers of two gods.”
Refutation of All Heresies 9.12.16Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Callistus devised a new teaching: the Word is the Son, and the same is called Father, one indivisible Spirit.
Refutation of All Heresies 9.12.17Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Callistus said Father and Son are one and the same, and that the Spirit incarnate in the virgin is the Father, citing John 14:10.
Refutation of All Heresies 9.12.18Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · For Callistus the visible man is the Son and the Spirit in him is the Father; they are one God and one person, so the Father co-suffered with the Son.
Refutation of All Heresies 9.12.19Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Hippolytus says Callistus avoids saying the Father suffered but wavers between Sabellius and Theodotus.
On Prayer 15.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · Origen argues that prayer in the strict sense should be addressed only to the Father, not to Christ, but always through Christ the High Priest.
On Prayer 15.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · Prayer is to be addressed to the Father, but always through and in the name of Jesus, as he taught.
On Prayer 15.4Origen · ca. 233–234 · Origen imagines Christ saying: do not pray to me but to the Father, through me as your High Priest and brother.
On Prayer 16.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · Christians should not be divided by praying some to the Father and some to the Son, but should pray to God through Christ, serving him out of love rather than fear.
On Prayer 33.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · Origen outlines the parts of prayer: begin with praise of God through Christ in the Holy Spirit, then thanksgiving, confession, requests for heavenly things, and end with praise.
On Prayer 33.6Origen · ca. 233–234 · Prayer should begin and end with praise of the Father through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit.
On the Trinity 1Novatian · ca. 240–250 · The rule of truth begins with faith in God the Father, the Creator of heaven, earth, sea, and man, whom he made free and gave a command, and of unseen realms above and below.
On the Trinity 12Novatian · ca. 240–250 · Hosea, Isaiah, and Habakkuk speak of God saving, coming, and working signs, which Christ fulfilled; so those who call Christ a mere man must either confess him God the Son or fall into Sabellianism.
On the Trinity 15Novatian · ca. 240–250 · Christ's sayings that he came from above, proceeded from God, gives immortality, existed before Abraham, and is one with the Father prove him God, yet the Son and not the Father.
On the Trinity 16Novatian · ca. 240–250 · Christ's promises of eternal life to believers, the Paraclete's receiving from him, his joining himself to the Father as object of faith, and his glory before the world prove him God, not a mere man or only predestined.
On the Trinity 17Novatian · ca. 240–250 · Moses agrees with John: the Word through whom God created all things, and who made man in God's image and came down at Babel, is the Son, Christ, who is therefore God.
On the Trinity 18Novatian · ca. 240–250 · The God who appeared to Abraham at Mamre and the Angel who spoke to Hagar, called both angel and God, cannot be the invisible Father or a mere angel; he is the Son, who accustoms human eyes to see God.
On the Trinity 22Novatian · ca. 240–250 · Philippians 2 shows Christ in the form of God, obedient to the Father, emptying himself by taking a servant's form and receiving the name above every name; a mere man is not emptied by being born, so Christ is God.
On the Trinity 23Novatian · ca. 240–250 · Even heretics who call Christ the Father, or who deny his flesh, testify by their error to his evident divinity; the Scriptures show him God as the Son and man as the Mediator who unites God and man.
On the Trinity 26Novatian · ca. 240–250 · Against those who say Christ is the Father because he is God, many texts show the Son as a second person after the Father, sent by him, obedient to him, and receiving all things from him.
On the Trinity 27Novatian · ca. 240–250 · “I and the Father are one” means one in concord, not one person: Christ says “one thing,” “we are,” and calls himself the Son sanctified and sent by the Father, as Paul and Apollos are two yet one.
On the Trinity 28Novatian · ca. 240–250 · “He who has seen me has seen the Father” does not make Christ the Father: Scripture speaks of the certain future as done, and whoever sees the Son, the Father's image, is on the way to seeing the invisible Father.
On the Trinity 29Novatian · ca. 240–250 · The rule of faith next requires belief in the Holy Spirit, promised by the prophets and given by Christ, who adorns the church with gifts, gives the new birth in baptism, sanctifies believers, and guards the church's truth.
On the Trinity 30Novatian · ca. 240–250 · Both Sabellians and adoptionists err by thinking “one God” excludes Christ's divinity; but as calling Christ Lord, Paul teacher, and Christ good does not undo the one Lord, Teacher, and Good, so Christ's being God does not undo the one God.
On the Trinity 31Novatian · ca. 240–250 · The one God is the Father, without origin; the Son, the Word born from him before all time, is God and a second person, yet, having his origin from the Father and returning all things to him in obedience, he does not make two Gods.
Against Celsus 1.46Origen · ca. 248 · The Spirit who came on Jesus at his baptism still works among Christians in exorcisms, healings, prophecies, and sudden conversions; Isaiah foretold that the Father would send both Christ and the Spirit.
Against Celsus 2.71Origen · ca. 248 · Origen says Jesus revealed the Father who sent him, as John's Gospel and letters show, and that the purposes of his mission are set out by prophets, evangelists, and apostles.
Against Celsus 2.9Origen · ca. 248 · Christians do not call Jesus' visible body or human soul God, but the divine Word who spoke in him, who created all things at the Father's command and is not confined to Jesus' body, though united with it.
Against Celsus 4.5Origen · ca. 248 · God fills heaven and earth, so his coming in Jesus does not mean leaving his place; he “departs” only from the wicked soul and fills the virtuous one, and the only change he brings is moral transformation.
Against Celsus 6.17Origen · ca. 248 · Against Plato's lofty words Origen sets the Scriptures' teaching that God hides in darkness and depth, known fully only by the Son and by those to whom the Son reveals him.
Against Celsus 6.64Origen · ca. 248 · God has no shape, colour, or motion; he is not a partaker of being but is partaken of, and Origen raises the question whether God is even beyond being, with the Son as the being of beings.
Against Celsus 6.69Origen · ca. 248 · The Son shares the Father's greatness and is as hard to see as the Father, who can be seen only by the pure in heart; the Son did not come as an easier substitute for an invisible God.
Against Celsus 6.70Origen · ca. 248 · God's Spirit is not a body but is shared with the worthy; Scripture calls God fire and spirit figuratively, and Jesus taught worship in spirit and truth rather than through bodily rites.
Against Celsus 6.71Origen · ca. 248 · When Christians call God “spirit” they do not mean, like the Stoics, a bodily breath pervading the world; God, the Word, and even the rational soul are incorporeal and imperishable.
Against Celsus 7.27Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus attacks the idea that God has a human-shaped body, but Christians hold that God is incorporeal, as Scripture says.
Against Celsus 8.12Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus charges Christians with worshipping a recent man; Origen answers that Father and Son are one, two in subsistence but one in concord and will, and the Son who is the Truth existed before Abraham.
Against Celsus 8.13Origen · ca. 248 · Christians do not serve the pagan gods, who are servants of the devil, not of God; they reverence the one God and his Son, offering prayer to the Father through the Son as high priest.
Against Celsus 8.14Origen · ca. 248 · Christians know from Scripture that Jesus is truly the Son of the Father, the radiance of his glory; he is the leader of peace, not sedition, and the Father is greater than the Son.
Against Celsus 8.15Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus quotes an obscure “heavenly dialogue” claiming the Son of Man is lord of God; Origen replies that no Christian he knows says this, since the Son is inferior to the Father and rules only those who willingly obey him.
Against Celsus 8.4Origen · ca. 248 · Scripture distinguishes the one God and one Lord from the many so-called gods and lords; Christians ascend to the God of gods through the Son alone, while Plato's picture of a host of gods and demons following Zeus came from the devil.
On the Lord's Prayer 23Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · God forgives us only as we forgive others; the greatest sacrifice is peace and a people united in the unity of the Trinity.
On the Lord's Prayer 30Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · Christ prayed for us, and above all that his people might be one as he and the Father are one.
On the Lord's Prayer 34Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · Praying at the third, sixth, and ninth hours was a figure of the Trinity, fulfilled at Pentecost, in Peter's vision, and at the cross.
On the Unity of the Catholic Church 6Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · The church is Christ's faithful bride and our mother; outside her, as outside Noah's ark, there is no salvation, for her unity reflects the unity of God.